Painted lady butterflies migrate through North County

YVETTE URREA - Staff Writer

NORTH COUNTY —— The spring forecast must have called for
butterfly flurries Saturday. The orange, brown, black and white
butterflies, known as Painted Ladies, fluttered along the coastal
areas heading north from Baja to the deserts, said butterfly expert
David Marriott, who runs the Monarch Program in Encinitas.

"It's a population explosion," Marriott said. "It happens two
times in a decade."

Charles Kyle, 48, of Oceanside, who works at Armstrong Garden
Centers at The Flower Fields, said he spotted the butterflies
Saturday as he drove to work in Carlsbad.

"Hundreds and hundreds of them," Kyle said. "They were like
falling ash, flittering and fluttering in front of your windshield.
It was hard to keep your eyes on the road.

"They made a beeline for the flower fields," he said. "Once they
went over the fields and saw the color, I suspect some of them
stopped by for a larger visit."

Carlsbad lifeguard Mark Allen said he was on a cliff looking
down and saw a swarm of them flying just 50 yards in from the water
on the beach.

"It was kind of wild," Allen said. "I just thought it was
interesting, and I've never seen that many."

Farther south, Del Mar lifeguard supervisor Patrick Vergne said
the butterflies were up on the bluffs, as he jogged and other
people walked on the trails.

"They all came at once," Vergne said.

Rainfall followed by warm temperatures triggers the migration,
Marriott said. The rainfall causes their host plants —— where
butterflies deposit their eggs —— to thrive and that results in
more butterfly eggs being deposited. Also, earlier in the year,
there are fewer butterfly predators which allow their numbers to
increase.

A butterfly lays a single egg on a host plant. The egg develops
into a larva that feeds off the plant.

Painted Lady butterflies like to use cheeseweed, thistle,
lupine, stinging nettle, and mallow as host plants.